Free Republic

News Corp., owner of the Fox network, Fox News and newspapers including the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, gave $1 million in late June to the Republican Governors Association, making it one of the largest corporate donors to the GOP group this election season. The donation, disclosed in Internal Revenue Service filings, marks a shift for the media giant, which traditionally has given smaller sums to candidates and committees and spread them relatively evenly between the two parties. News Corp. spokesman Jack Horner said the contribution was intended to promote the company's core beliefs. "News Corporation has...

News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch is embarking on an ambitious plan for a new national digital newspaper to be distributed exclusively as paid content for tablet computers such as Apple Inc.'s iPad and mobile phones. The initiative, which would directly compete with the New York Times, USA Today and other national publications, is the latest attempt by a major media organization to harness sexy new devices to reach readers who increasingly consume their news on the go. The development underscores how the iPad is transforming the reading habits of consumers much like the iPod changed how people listen to...

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- News Corp. is considering an acquisition of the Texas Rangers baseball franchise, according to a published report, in a move that would allow it to reap rewards from the team's resurgence in the standings. The company is "learning toward" entering a bid at the Rangers' bankruptcy auction Wednesday, the New York Post reported in its Monday editions, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation. (The Post is also a News Corp. publication.) A News Corp. spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a MarketWatch request for comment. The media conglomerate's broadcast holdings include a number of regional Fox...

Winds howl over the deserted moonscape behind Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper paywallsCory Doctorow at 7:45 AM Friday, Jul 16, 2010 Newser's Michael Wolff has a report from behind Rupert Murdoch's notorious UK paywalls which went up this month around The Times and Sunday Times's sites, which are apparently ghost-towns, unpeopled even by the print subscribers who get free access but can't be arsed to log in (and never follow links to Times stories, since chances are anyone in a position to make such a link doesn't have an account for the site). The wider implications of this emptiness are only...

Rupert Murdoch has gone on the offensive to justify his plan to put his newspaper’s websites behind a paywall. He told a National Press Club event at George Washington University: “We are going to stop people like Google or Microsoft or whoever from taking stories for nothing … there is a law of copyright and they recognise it.” In an interview with Martin Kalb for The Kalb Report, Murdoch set out what the search engines would be permitted to do: “We’ll be very happy if they just publish our headline or a sentence or two and that’s followed by a...

A handful of advertisers, such as Apple, have abandoned Fox altogether. Network executives say they believe they could charge higher rates if the host were more widely acceptable to advertisers.

It’s official now. This explains a lot of what’s happened recently. Rupert Murdoch is moving his NewsCorp headquarters to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. You can kiss fair and balanced FoxNews good-bye. Breitbart has the story here: “News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch announced on Tuesday that the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi is to become the headquarters of his global media empire in the Middle East. Addressing some 400 delegates at the opening of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, Murdoch said his corporation had started out as a small Australian firm to become a US-based international company that employs 64,000...

This is part eleventy-three of the media’s nonstop push for a boring, water-soaked, milquetoast, cucumbers and mayonnaise sandwich of a dull, uninspiring white man to be the GOP’s 2012 nominee against Dr. Utopia and the razzle dazzle the media will muster for his re-election. Today, oddly, it’s the Daily Telegraph in the UK doing the Mitt Romney cheerleading…with cheers designed to lead the GOP off a cliff that looks suspiciously like the face of Bob Dole that’s not carved on Mt. Rushmore…because Bob Dole was never elected president…because Bob Dole, as nice of a man as he is, and as...

"Abu Dhabi is future base for News Corp: Murdoch News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch announced on Tuesday that the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi is to become the headquarters of his global media empire in the Middle East. Addressing some 400 delegates at the opening of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, Murdoch said his corporation had started out as a small Australian firm to become a US-based international company that employs 64,000 people. "I have every confidence that Arab companies can do the same and more. I also believe that Abu Dhabi can lead the way." Murdoch said News Corp...

ABU DHABI—News Corp.'s Fox International Channels said Monday it is basing the Middle East operations of its global online advertising network in Abu Dhabi and setting up an office here for its documentary-production arm. Fox International said it would also move some broadcasting operations related to its Mideast channels from Hong Kong and other locations to Abu Dhabi. The moves are the latest by a handful of large, international media outlets to establish footholds in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The city-state, in an effort to diversify away from oil, has set out to lure a...

It’s official now. This explains a lot of what’s happened recently. Rupert Murdoch is moving his NewsCorp headquarters to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. You can kiss fair and balanced FoxNews good-bye. Breitbart has the story right here: “News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch announced on Tuesday that the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi is to become the headquarters of his global media empire in the Middle East. Addressing some 400 delegates at the opening of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, Murdoch said his corporation had started out as a small Australian firm to become a US-based international company that employs...

The Arab lobby has taken over from the long time powerhouse Brit lobby for giving us BAD advice. The Saudi-led Arab lobby has been funding our universities, shmoozing the Washington elite, and suckering the gullible New York Times with money they reap from our dependence on their oil. And they have achieved surprising success, considering that 15 of the 19 terrorists who attacked the Twin Towers were Saudis. Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal donated $20 million each to Harvard and Georgetown Universities "to promote interfaith understanding." For Georgetown, the gift was the second-largest ever received. Cornell University, Stanford University, and...

News Corp. Chairman-CEO Rupert Murdoch confirmed today for the first time what everyone in New York media already knows: The Wall Street Journal will launch its New York edition in April. It's a direct thrust at The New York Times, whose New York metro advertisers haven't had an efficient alternative in the Journal before. Now those marketers will have a new possibility, a prospect that's already tempted Bloomingdale's and Bergdorf Goodman -snip- "We're adding a whole new section and taking on reporters and editors," Mr. Murdoch added. "We believe that, in its pursuit of journalism prizes and a national reputation,...

Rotana Media, the broadcaster and music group owned by Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said it had agreed to sell a $70m stake to News Corp, Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire. Rotana said on Tuesday that News Corp had agreed to buy a 9.09 per cent stake with an option to take this up to 18.18 per cent. The move will mark News Corp’s most significant investment so far in the Middle East, where faster GDP growth, a young population and maturing advertising markets have begun to draw US and European media groups facing slow growth in their...

A recent column of mine alluded to a deal that Rupert Murdoch had concluded with one of the Princes in the Saudi Arabian Muslim leadership. At that time there were no details available, but since that time we have seen Fox News and its affiliates swarming with actions favorable to our worst enemy, Muslim law. Old favorites on Fox that once preached good old fashioned American values and candidates such as O’Reilly, Beck, Hannity and others are now, according to a fresh blog from Neil Turner, Citizens for the Constitution on February 15, 2010, “in the enemy camp, and will...

The Saudi billionaire whose investment firm is one of the biggest stakeholders in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said he is looking to expand his alliances with the media giant, in the latest indication that his appetite for growth remains robust even as his company retrenches.

If you're a certain sort of still-employed media person, you're probably wondering how much longer you can hold on to your job. But the larger question might be: Just how unreal -- illusory, delusional, unmoored from the realities of the marketplace -- has your job been all along? I've been thinking about this a lot lately in regard to the coming passing of the media billionaires. Nobody likes to admit this, but much of the best of contemporary journalism has been produced, and continues to get produced, simply because of the largess -- and the emotional needs -- of a...

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia is one of the largest foreign investors in the United States. Prince Alwaleed's nickname is "The Warren Buffett of the Gulf" and he is one of the world's richest people. The Prince is a private entrepreneur and an international investor. The Prince was born to Prince Talal, son of the founding King of Saudi Arabia, Abdul Aziz Al Saud, and Princess Mona Al-Solh, Daughter of Lebanon's first Prime Minister. The Prince is the nephew of the Saudi Arabian King Abdullah. The Carlyle Group counts Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Alsaud of...

Chilling, if true. Money controls everything. Protecting Obama via intimidation? Al Awi Ben Talal, the Saudi prince is nephew of King Abdullah...the 2nd largest shareholder in Fox--is this the reason O'Reilly, Hannity and Beck are silent on and actively seek to ridicule Obama birth certificate story? The story out of Canada via sources claimed they had been 'warned' to destroy the story---or else.

(Not to our advantage to say the least--Alwaleed bin Talal is now the 2nd largest shaeholder at Fox...translated: no Obama eligibility coverage or else) "...met with Rupert Murdoch on Jan. 14 in a meeting that "touched upon future potential alliances with News Corp., " Saudi billionaire eyes new links with News Corp. By TAREK EL-TABLAWY, AP Business Writer – Sun Jan 17, 8:15 am ET CAIRO – The Saudi billionaire whose investment firm is one of the biggest stakeholders in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said he is looking to expand his alliances with the media giant, in the latest indication...